Not having read-err watched the Kambashi, I don't know whats coming next, but I believe his numbers are underestimated.

~Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.~ The Creation of ÉaDamn you Clemson University, you deleted the 'sploding Kay that Etherwings uploaded eons ago!

I'm having a very difficult time with Ika Takozushi.It's just not happening for me - this is probably about as close to doing commercial art, thus far, as I can get.I forced myself to start, 'ready or not' as I put it, and initial response has not been that positive.

I feed off of positive response - it keeps me going - and negative response just kills the drive to work. I do my comics for free, so my 'payment' is imagining that I am making people very, very happy.

No one is complaining that my work here is bad, rather that it is empty. I had a long talk with Stephen about this, and I can understand the problem.

I don't think I am that good of an artist - I'm not bad, by any means, but there are many who are vastly more talented and able than I am. If I have anything going for me as an artist, it is my own little spark, a quirky oddness, about what I do with what I have to offer. I go off on some weird or oddball take on things, and I feel strong emotion when I draw, and that gets put into my lines and paint.

When I have been doing Takozushi, I have felt... nothing. A grind. I have nothing new to say here, like I did when I was doing Pastel Defender Heliotrope, also a Kamishibai story. I did a new take on things. But here, I am only doing the original Kamishibai, as it was, mechanically.

I don't feel like it is working

Well, I think, one problem is, you are doing a remake.Pastel was a remake too, but this Kamishibai was more a game then a story, so you had more freedom, there was only one scene in the adventure.It seems that Takozushi follows very strictly the old whole storyline, and that does break you out."Nothing new, so many old things, - oh my goddess, this is WORK!"I remember, there was a french comic artist who did draw a story complete new, and coloured it.The result wasn't satisfying, the old one was better.

Didn't you say, you want to include some other storylines?Do you want to start with the battle?Then, you must "bite your teeth together" and walk through this part of the story.Or do you have the freedom to twist the timeline, (Hey, in the new Star Trek movie they destroyed Vulcan)

Maybe you need a turn in an other direction, still the same story, but different.OVA Anime's do often have nearly the same story but it's different and sometimes they ignore the original story.That's one way, .. I can't tell you what to do, but you should look for a chance to take away the feeling of hard work .Maybe the box of the Kamishibai is to much a kind of a border or so?I can only suppose what's going around in your mind, and maybe I'm wrong.

Why I'm so eager to read it?At first, bigger pictures, the Kamishibai was so small.Second, seeing your art getting more advanced.Oh, the old art was very good and it still is.

...but there are many who are vastly more talented and able than I am. ...

Of course there are, and to be honest, in some cases, you are better then me!Really! Ok, in some other ... bah, forget it!We all can't be the best artist, but one thing is very important for you, have a huge output.I don't have this ability and the patience to create a webcomic by myself.

So, do surprise us, with good pictures, some good drawings, and try to surprise yourself.

In response to what you wrote on the news section, Jenny, I'm enjoying the new comic, but I'm not looking forward to the same things that I did in the past ones. This new art style that you're using is very interesting, and more than anything else, I'm just curious to see what illustrations you're going to be making with it. The story seems like it will be interesting enough, but it's not the primary draw for me. If you feel like this is a grind because there's nothing new, maybe you should consider a rewrite? I don't know how attached to the original story you are, but if you're bothered because you're not able to flex your creative muscles enough, that might help.